Jurassic World: Jurassic Screw-ups by Asian men.

CATEGORY OF OFFENSE : Stereotype

MEDIA TYPE : Movie

OFFENSE DATE : 2018

Plot:

22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, the Jurassic World luxury resort was built as an amusement park habitat for genetically engineered dinosaurs, including the savage yet highly intelligent Indominus rex. When the Indominus escapes from its specialized enclosure of Jurassic World, it sets off a chain reaction that causes the other dinos of the park to run amok. Navy veteran and velociraptor expert Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) must use his survival skills to save two young brothers and the rest of the tourists from the dino rampage.

Notes / Characters:

Character: Simon Masrani, CEO of Masrani Corporation and owner of Jurassic World
Actor: Irrfan Khan
Trope: Asian man is bad at everything, from driving/flying helicopters to being CEO.

Dr. Henry Wu, the chief geneticist of team that created dinosaurs at the park
Actor: BD Wong
Trope: Asian man is smart, yet greedy. Asian man has loose morals and will go along with evil white men's plans.

Character: Owen Grady, Velociraptor expert and trainer, the main protagonist
Actor: Chris Pratt
Trope: White hero will save the day and get the girl.

Claire, Jurassic World's operations manager, the other main protagonist
Actor: Bryce Dallas Howard
Trope: Hot white heroine that needs hot white hero to open her up to love. She is sort of the audience surrogate that will love the white hero.

Brothers Zach and Gray, Claire's nephews
Actors: Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins
Trope: Children that need to be saved from killer dinos. They are also the audience surrogate that will admire the white hero when they need saving.

Vic Hoskins, Jurassic World's leader of security force
Actor: Vincent D'Onofrio
Trope: Villainous white man who wants to weaponize dinos. He will convince Henry to smuggle dino embryos out of the park to create more monsters.

Analysis:

00:13:00 – Indian CEO, Masrani seems out of touch with reality, asking the operations manager if the animals are doing well. Claire points out that they can't really measure animal satisfaction in which Masrani responds saying, “you can see it in their eyes,” which seems like some new-agey mystic nonsense. It shows how far-out Masrani is in terms of owning and running a business based on exploiting the animals.

00:14:00 – Masrani is terrible at starting and flying the helicopter as he just “got his license” (will actually get his license in two more days). With a rocky start, Masrani pilots the helicopter enthusiastically, yet is clearly inexperienced–Claire sits petrified in the back seat. He keeps looking back at her and she suggests, “Maybe you should just focus on the controls.”

00:14:30 –Masrani says, “to spare no expense” when it comes to running the park as the ops manager points out that the reality of making a park successful hinges upon making sure profits exist. Masrani is oblivious to the business of doing his job as CEO, as usual.

00:15:40 – Masrani lands the helicopter terribly. His co-pilot gets out of the craft and immediately pukes – Asian man is very bad at flying! Masrani yet again shows us how out of touch he is and refers to his co-pilot's vomiting as him, “just being dramatic.”

Note the vomiting co-pilot in the bushes on the right.

00:46:00 – When the Indominus Tyrannosaurus Rex starts rampaging throughout the park, Hamada, the leader of ACU, goes with his trained team to track the beast, but finds that the embedded tracking device has been ripped out of the Indominus’s flesh. The Indominus pops out of the trees and squashes Hamada easily. His team opens fire in vain on the beast, which overruns them. It's not racist per se (they could've casted anyone for this role), but it doesn't show Asian men succeeding in a leadership role as Hamada was unaware and unprepared for what was coming.

00:50:20 – Masrani and Henry talk about how the Indominus Rex was created. One Asian fool talks to another. If you don't recall, Henry Wu was on the original team of dino scientists that worked at the first Jurassic Park. Asian man commits the same crime as he did before – his drive to create greater monsters will hurt many people. Masrani explains to Henry, “It hid from thermal technology” in which Henry responds, “Really?” and goes on to explain how the team spliced frog DNA to the Indominus's DNA to adapt it to tropical climate. This shows that he and his team didn't know what they were doing in the first place when they spliced all the genes together – Asian man is a fool. Masrani asks, “Who authorized you to do this?” and Henry responds, “You did”, showing that both of these Asian fools are complicit in the creation of an abomination. Henry even goes on to point out that they are doing what they have been doing since the beginning. He tries to blame Masrani, “you didn't ask for reality – you asked for more teeth!” – showcasing how Asian man doesn't care for other Asian men and vice versa – neither taking responsibility for their own actions.

“You asked for more teeth!”

01:02:00 – Owen and Claire calm a dying herbivore dino. Trope: white hero and heroine are one with nature and do good.

01:11:45 – Masrani steps up to the plate and flies the helicopter for a team of trained mercenaries ready to take down the Indominus! Maybe Asian man can redeem himself?

01:15:30 – Masrani is still bad at flying.

01:16:00 – Masrani and the mercenaries helicopter chase the Indominus to the outside of the giant aviary of the park, which houses hundreds to thousands of dangerous flying pterosaurs. The mercenaries open fire on the Indominus Rex using a mounted machine gun, but does little damage to it. The Indominus crashes into the aviary's glass structure, releasing the pterosaurs to the rest of the park who bombard and attack the helicopter. Masrani and the mercenaries crash into the aviary structure and die in a huge helicopter explosion. Asian man tries to be a hero and fails.

01:22:45 – Owen gets attacked by a pterosaur and Claire saves him with her gun and they kiss passionately. The viewer is supposed to feel positive emotions about their connection because the white hero is worth saving and the white heroine is beginning to love him. No minorities scoring whatsoever.

01:41:00 – Hoskins has his team helicopter Henry away to a secure location with stolen frozen dino embryos, supposedly so that together, they can create more hybrid dinos for weaponized use. Culprit Asian man relies on evil white man to further more evil plans.

01:43:00 – Hoskins dies from a Velociraptor attack. Henry is still out there with the dino embryos, potentially ready to make more monsters.

01:54:00 – Owen and Claire have a touching moment at the end that solidifies their connection together. White hero and heroine are meant to be together. No Asian men in sight because they are either dead or evil and gone.

More analysis:

Jurassic World includes a very diverse cast. There is one main difference in how these characters are portrayed and what they do to move the plot along: the white characters are either highly capable or ambitious and the Asian characters are downright foolish and typically worsen the situation or seem helpless in the face of it.

The same white tropes are seen throughout the movie:

1. White savior/hero

2. White heroine helps white hero to save the world.

3. White savior succeeds and they live happily ever after.

Several Hollywood-Asian tropes are also seen:

1. Asian man is foolish (Masrani and Henry).

2. Asian man is disposable when trying to help (Masrani and Hamada).

3. Asian man is morally ambiguous (Henry).

These tropes pervade the entire movie in subtle ways as they’re not the typical yellow-face or accented buffoonery we have seen in other movies, but are even more damaging. The Asian characters have character, sass and intelligence – they are also very in over their heads in a way that white characters in the same movie never are.